California, Lake Tahoe Skiing & Carson Walks!

We FINALLY made it out to California to visit my brother after living on separate coasts for over three years. The trip was everything I’d hoped it would be…quality time with family, a wonderful getaway and great skiing- thanks Mom & Dad for a wonderful vacation! My pictures are linked to the 1st picture (as usual)...click to see Mom's pics & Rob's pics.

We flew into Sacramento and spent a day and a half in Folsom seeing Rob and Kristen’s new house and spending time with our nephew Owen. Unfortunately, Mike had a stomach bug that made his flight out to CA, the drive to the mountains, and the first few days of our vacation not fun at all, but luckily he got better in time to ski and enjoy our the last half of the vacation. Collin and Owen got along great but Owen seemed to feel quite threatened by Carson and didn’t want anything to do with him. Carson was his happy-go-lucky self, but Owen looks quite concerned as you can see. I know they will be good buddy cousins some days being only seven months apart, but not good friends at 13 and 20 months.

Rob & Kristen live about 90 minutes from South Lake Tahoe. We stayed at the Marriott Timerlodge Time Share RIGHT at the bottom of the gondola at Heavenly, one of the most beautiful ski resorts (see picture). We’ve never stayed anywhere that was ski in/ski out and it was quite a treat to be in the heart of everything. Collin went to ski school for two days. He liked the snow and the idea of skiing but it will be another few times before he can ski with us.We got over 18 inches of powder the second night we were there so we had some great skiing! It was quite cold for spring skiing and because of the snow storms we didn’t have the beautiful views of the lake until the last day (our birthday). I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday – skiing with my husband and brother in beautiful sunshine and a great Mongolian BBQ dinner and carrot cake with my whole family.

The night before our birthday – March 22nd Carson began walking for the first time! It was sooo exciting and I was happy that we could share it with my parents and Rob & Kristen! Since he had been practicing so much by holding our finger so tightly (basically walking on his own for several weeks) he didn’t just take a few steps like he had done before or gradually increase how far he could walk. He was OFF! Check out the video…Carson was walking all around the hotel room, turning and practically running back and forth between us. He was so proud of himself for being able to walk independently and loved all our attention.


Collin was excited to watch his brother walk at first but then started to get a little jealous and wanted some attention too. I forgot how exciting it was to watch your child take his first steps and learn to walk. While I had gotten tired of holding his little finger and following him all over the place I started to get sad and sentimental about my little baby growing up. After a great time in Lake Tahoe we headed back to Folsom and enjoyed some warm weather before we had to head out super early Wednesday morning. It was fun to watch the boys run around in Rob & Kristen’s back yard, especially since a few days before Carson wouldn’t even walk by himself. It was a wonderful vacation and so great to see family. It’s sad that we live so far away and who knows when we’ll see their new baby girl due the end of April.

Voegtles visit and Carson’s Haircut

Mike’s parents came down to celebrate Carson’s first birthday the weekend after since that’s when Bill was off work. It was a short trip but we had a good visit with them. I let Doris put Carson to bed for naps and bedtime which went surprisingly smoothly. Perhaps it’s just Doris’ magic baby touch but he went to sleep easily and quickly with just a few wimpers each time.
We didn’t do a whole lot while they were here – church & dinner, a fish fry, Bill took Collin fishing, and birthday cake and presents. Carson enjoyed his cake this time – carrot cake with cream cheese icing!

We decided to make our trip to Snip Its for Carson’s first haircut a major outing. I was holding out on cutting Carson’s hair until he was a year old since I loved it so much, then we decided to wait until Mike’s parents were here so they could see it. I considered taking the boys myself for their haircuts but I am glad I didn’t because Carson’s haircut turned into a four-person operation. Carson screamed through the entire process as you can see from the pictures...Mike videotaped, Doris helped by holding his head still, and I tried to comfort him while Ms. Kim clipped away. As much as I was sad to see his beautiful locks fall to the floor he looks super cute in his new haircut and much more like a boy.

Bathtime and the zoo

Sometimes we forget to take pictures of the everyday activities, like taking a bath. Here are a few pictures of the boys in their monogrammed character towels they got for Christmas and some pictures of the new baby panda (6 months) and Collin and Carson with Cameron and Conner at the zoo. We hadn't been to the zoo in quite a few months, so we enjoyed the outing with our friends on a fair weather Friday in February.

Atlanta Spring Snow

It doesn't snow in Atlanta too often so it’s pretty exciting when it does. We've been lucky to get a nice pretty snow once a year for the last several years. This year it was on March 2nd, last year it was February 14th. March 2nd was a Sunday so we were happy that we had gone to church Saturday night so we could stay home and enjoy playing and watching the beautiful big flakes. Collin especially enjoyed the snow! We ran and slid and "ice-skated" on the back porch. We got out pretty early in the day before much accumulation so we didn't build a snowman. In the afternoon it started raining so Collin was bummed. We went out for dinner and saw so many other snowmen that our neighbors had built so we build a small one on the back porch table in the dark before bed.

Here are pictures looking of the view from our front porch and Collin "skating" on our back porch.

Carson turns 1 year!

A year of my little baby Carson has flown by so fast! It seems like just yesterday that he was Poppycorn in my belly but he’s definitely growing into a little boy as much as I may want him to stay a baby (mixed feelings of course). Not only is he getting older, but he continues to be a very big baby. He’s out of the infant car seat as he’s neededto be for a while, 32 inches tall (the 100th percentile), and weighs 22 pounds (the 55th percentile, a decrease from his previous visits).

Over the last several weeks Carson has gotten increasingly opinionated and more difficult to please. He may not know exactly how to tell us what he wants but we can pretty much figure it out. He tries to lead us to go outside with him and he squeals until he gets the foods he wants. Ever since he’s started eating blueberries and grapes he has been more picky about what he will eat. He likes spaghetti and Macaroni and Cheetos. His favorites are what we call “Baby Cheetos”, basically vegetable corn puffs, fruits, and Vanilla yogurt. He rarely eats baby food and other than peas. We’ve had trouble finding vegetables for him to eat, but we keep trying

He has crawled a few times (a short distance) so we know he can do it if he’s well rested and we encourage him, but he much prefers his bottom or his feet. When we put him on his tummy he usually pushes himself over to sit down so he can scoot to where he wants to go. We spend much of the time holding his finger and letting him walk around. If we try to loosen the finger he tightens his grip or sits down. He has taken a FEW steps on his own if we’ve been able to get our finger away, but overall he is too scared and doesn’t have the confidence to walk by himself though it seems his balance is getting quite good. If he really wants to go somewhere he is pretty resourceful finding walls and other objects he can cruise along to reach his desired destination.

Sleeping is not going too well. I would have never guessed that I’d get better sleep with a one month old than a one year old, but that’s how it’s worked out. He had an ear infection this month, which probably began the waking at night, but now it seems to almost be related to bad dreams and separation anxiety as he’s having quite a bit of difficulty going to sleep also. Given that we’re going skiing soon I’ve decided to wait to get strict again, but it’s pretty exhausting.

We had a pretty low-key birthday celebration on purpose. Carson did have to go to the doctor and get his shots ON his birthday (a Friday) due to a change in insurance on 3/1. After lunch at home we went to Chuck E. Cheese with some of Collin’s school friends. After daddy came home we opened some gifts and ate dinner and birthday cake. I made a yellow cake with Chocolate icing and he didn’t even like it. That was quite a surprise, but at least he enjoyed the candle and our singing to him. We’ll try another type of cake when Grandma & Grandpa visit next week.

Carson is 11 months

It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on a year already. Of course, people who see Carson still think he’s much older than 11 months, and often thing he's a girl. A stranger may ask Collin, ‘How old is your sister?”, to which he replies, “ I don’t have a sister, that’s my BRODER”. Despite the length of his hair and these type of comments, I’m holding out on cutting the back until he’s a year old.

Carson is quite the scooter these days. Check out this video to see for yourself!
He’s pretty fast when he sees something he wants, putting his hands in front of him and pulling himself along. He also loves the Walker, Corn Popper or Tractor Vehicles that he can use to do laps around the house. We have to steer his driving, as he can’t pull himself backwards when he runs into a wall so MUCH of our time is spent either holding his hands to let him walk, or steering whatever vehicle he is using at the time. I know this is a short phase that we’ll be doing laps helping him walk and I enjoy watching him be so proud of himself. He is really determined and LOVES practicing his walking so we do many laps. Just recently he has a definite opinion of where he wants to go and f you try to go another direction he gets mad and lets out a squeal. We are trying to discourage him from wanting to practice steps but he has discovered a new skill to master and heads for the stairs quite a bit. He still gets very excited when he sees the cats and tries to chase them. They’re surprisingly tolerant and let him get pretty close and even lets him pet them if we’re holding them.

He does best when he has two naps a day – one around 10 & another around 2 or 3. If we have something going on he can get by with one nap in the middle of the day and his pretty flexible. Most of the time he is sleeping through the night in his own crib - a welcome change. He sleeps on his tummy even though he still doesn’t’ like to be on his tummy during the day. We haven’t made any progress on having him GO to sleep without mom – something we need to work on over the next month or two. I’ve started having him in childcare at bible study or during meetings I have to attend, which usually is fine for a little while as long as it’s not during his nap (which it usually is, since that’s when Collin is in school).

He is less interested in eating jar food and being spoon fed, unless he is allowed to hold and dip the spoon himself, which is really messy. Overall, he prefers finger foods that he can feed himself - fine by me. For breakfast he eats Cherrios and bananas or his new favorite – blueberries. Other meals usually consist of Ritz crackers and usually what we’re eating chopped small.

Mike says he's not as easy going this month as other months, but I think he's just becoming more opinionated and knows what he wants (i.e., to have you walk arond holding his hand for 10 or more laps at a time and where he wants to go). He doesn't seem to enjoy baths as much as he used to, but I'm hoping this is just a phase.

Dallas & Austin

For the second time in six months we traveled to Austin for a wedding. Check out Tara's pictures too! I love Austin so it was quite a treat, and there’s no easy way to get there directly from Atlanta, so it’s a good excuse to stop in Dallas. I went on Tuesday to spend several days with friends and my parents and Mike met up with us at DFW airport on our way to Austin. It was a quick trip in Dallas, but we got to meet Chrissie’s new baby, Taylor who is so cute spend time with Laura’s Addison just before her first birthday. I was able to attend my Mary Kay training while mom & dad watched the boys and had my first evening out in a long while to celebrate Ed’s birthday – with Ashley, Laura & my friend Brian from high school. And of course, it was great to see my parents again and I’m so happy mom has been able to see the boys the once a month for the last three months.

Austin was quite fun! Brett & Tara renovated a duplex that’s RIGHT on the trailhead of the Austin Greenbelt, a great hiking trail that connects to many running trails in South Austin. They live in the larger half and will be renting the smaller half, but for this visit we had quite spacious accommodations…we didn’t want to leave! It was so great to be able to catch up with Tara, and go running and hiking together. Jenny came down to visit several times which was awesome too. Mike & Brett enjoyed each other’s company and Collin and Gage got along great! Collin also fell in love with Maris (his favorite dog as he said) and Carson was definitely interested in her but a little scared at times.

The weather was beautiful while we were there! I took the boys to a Dinosaur digging at a nature center on Friday while the boys played golf, then we hiked down to a neat playground where we took a train ride along the River. Brent’s wedding was Saturday night. We ended up taking the boys since the wedding was at 6 PM and too early to leave Carson for the evening, which didn’t go too well. Weddings and babies aren’t the best combination, as we should know by now but it was very nice reception. On the way back mom & dad met us at DFW during our layover so we could tell them about our trip and get an update on my dad’s trip to St. Louis after moving my Grandma out of the hospital. Please keep Grandma in your prayers as she recovers from her fall and adjusts to a new environment.